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Voice is given to all creatures to communicate. Ask yourself: why, actually, he barks? You say, he stops barking only he is inside the park with other dogs free to run together. If that is so, his satisfaction comes together with free movement and communication with other dogs. He barks because he cannot get to the dog he wants to make a close contact with. The leash which holds him makes his wish stronger. And you, probably, try to calm him down - thus telling him that everything he does and feels should be that way - instead of ignoring him. By barking he tries to minimize his frustration that he cannot get what he wants immediately, and he got used to relieve himself by barking.
You should work on it by training him to be patient. It would be useless to start with dogs, but that will be your final target. Start with asking him to remain in sitting position for 10 minutes before he gets to his meal. You can keep his plate on the table first, then move it on the floor, but he must start eating only when you tell him. Another exercise - ask him to remain in sitting position for 10-15 minutes in the open field while you walk around, come back to him and reward. You can imagine yourself something to exercise his patience. With dogs - he must know that he will get what he wants if he is patient enough. When you come to the park, ask him to sit and wait 50 yards away from others, let other dogs approach him first, ask him to heel off leash, and come to other people slowly. He must sit when he is told to sit, he must heel when he is told to heel, and that fact that he barks is not that important as long as he obeys your commands off leash. His urge to bark should diminish with time and age, just don't pay any attention to it yourself.

Voice is given to all creatures to communicate. Ask yourself: why, actually, he barks? You say, he stops barking only he is inside the park with other dogs free to run together. If that is so, his satisfaction comes together with free movement and communication with other dogs. He barks because he cannot get to the dog he wants to make a close contact with. The leash which holds him makes his wish stronger. And you, probably, try to calm him down - thus telling him that everything he does and feels should be that way - instead of ignoring him. By barking he tries to minimize his frustration that he cannot get what he wants immediately, and he got used to relieve himself by barking.
You should work on it by training him to be patient. It would be useless to start with dogs, but that will be your final target. Start with asking him to remain in sitting position for 10 minutes before he gets to his meal. You can keep his plate on the table first, then move it on the floor, but he must start eating only when you tell him. Another exercise - ask him to remain in sitting position for 10-15 minutes in the open field while you walk around, come back to him and reward. You can imagine yourself something to exercise his patience. With dogs - he must know that he will get what he wants if he is patient enough. When you come to the park, ask him to sit and wait 50 yards away from others, let other dogs approach him first, ask him to heel off leash, and come to other people slowly. He must sit when he is told to sit, he must heel when he is told to heel, and that fact that he barks is not that important as long as he obeys your commands off leash. His urge to bark should diminish with time and age, just don't pay any attention to it yourself.

Thanks David. That makes perfect sense and I believe its accurate regarding what he's feeling.

He barks to the neighbor dogs too when he wants them to come play with him. Their house is 100 yards away and we share a fence line, and will call to his friends when he wants attention. Perhaps the dog park and other dogs at the soccer field are a similar situation in his mind.

04-22-2014 05:42 PM

David Taggart

Voice is given to all creatures to communicate. Ask yourself: why, actually, he barks? You say, he stops barking only he is inside the park with other dogs free to run together. If that is so, his satisfaction comes together with free movement and communication with other dogs. He barks because he cannot get to the dog he wants to make a close contact with. The leash which holds him makes his wish stronger. And you, probably, try to calm him down - thus telling him that everything he does and feels should be that way - instead of ignoring him. By barking he tries to minimize his frustration that he cannot get what he wants immediately, and he got used to relieve himself by barking.
You should work on it by training him to be patient. It would be useless to start with dogs, but that will be your final target. Start with asking him to remain in sitting position for 10 minutes before he gets to his meal. You can keep his plate on the table first, then move it on the floor, but he must start eating only when you tell him. Another exercise - ask him to remain in sitting position for 10-15 minutes in the open field while you walk around, come back to him and reward. You can imagine yourself something to exercise his patience. With dogs - he must know that he will get what he wants if he is patient enough. When you come to the park, ask him to sit and wait 50 yards away from others, let other dogs approach him first, ask him to heel off leash, and come to other people slowly. He must sit when he is told to sit, he must heel when he is told to heel, and that fact that he barks is not that important as long as he obeys your commands off leash. His urge to bark should diminish with time and age, just don't pay any attention to it yourself.

04-22-2014 04:59 PM

DJEtzel

Age will probably not help. Just training.

04-22-2014 04:46 PM

Thorny

Thanks All. When He was a little pup we'd go to training and he'd bark the WHOLE time, for over 2 hours. I had to stand 50 feet back from the circle and work at that distance to get him to settle down a bit. Now he's able to go to training class and not bark, but he'll whine some times. He can be left in the middle of the circle of dogs like the pictures above. He can down and stay in a line with the other dogs and he can down and stay with activity around him. But this is all at training class.

Now, out at the soccer field it's a different story, and at the dog park in the parking lot before entering the fence. Once inside the dog park, all the barking goes away.

I have not given up on training him. But I am looking for training techniques, which I've gotten some here. And I'm wondering if age will help him. My old lab didn't calm down until she was 4, my parent lab when she was 7. I thought maybe there was a golden age when a WL Sheppard starts to chill out a bit. (At least we are done with the land shark phase, right?)

It sounds like you have a wonderful dog, and a wonderful family dog. Some dogs are just dog aggressive, it's more prevalent in some breeds than others. You didn't do anything wrong, just the way the dog is.

That is NOT just the way he is, he doesn't have to be like that- you just may need a different approach, do not give up on training him.....

My trainer has me work through it (actually in the process of it right now) if she is screaming I calmly lift her off her feet with her prong collar and slowly lower her, we work through it and she is NOT allowed to play, it's all OB, I do notice a quicker recovery time (to her becoming quiet) each time we practice.

It sounds like you have a wonderful dog, and a wonderful family dog. Some dogs are just dog aggressive, it's more prevalent in some breeds than others. You didn't do anything wrong, just the way the dog is.

04-22-2014 12:26 PM

DJEtzel

Well, you taught him to care about other dogs more than yourself, and you're reinforcing it regularly.